I LOVED the article by Ray James in The Bugle (May 8 edition) as I was a fine young Rocker in the early/ mid 1960s.

There weren't so many cars around then as today so the roads were much clearer, and since the average family car was of the Morris Minor / Ford Prefect variety that would fall apart over 60mph we were the absolute masters of the highways.

I lived in Bradley then, and was part of the biker crowd that based itself at the Bridge Café in Bilston, with frequent excursions to meet the boys at the Gainsborough in Wolverhampton. Every Sunday, as Ray mentioned, we would all hurtle to Bridgnorth at incredible speeds, the Wolverhampton to Bridgnorth road being a favourite, and meet up at the café in Hightown, or down by the river. Great fun.

Of course at the time we regarded Mods as much lesser creatures! They rode little Italian scooters and wore NATO-surplus parkas with dodgy fur that always had that faint "next-door's-missing-cat" fragrance, but each to his own!

When we were young, what glory days indeed.

Phil Lawton,

Telford.

lawtonrosedene@aol.com

PS I passed my bike test at 16, and bought and legally rode a 500 Norton twin. Can you imagine that now?